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Friday, November 8, 2013

The patriarch of a prominent Staten Island Jewish family has
had enough of dirty laundry being aired in the media.

Rabbi Yosaif Asher Weiss of Prince's Bay defended his family
against accusations by his estranged daughter-in-law, Gital Dodelson, who has
taken her four-year battle for a religious divorce into the court of public
opinion by posting on Facebook and other social media.

"Our family is horrified by the vitriol, lies and hate
that permeate Gital's article," said
Rabbi Weiss, referring to an expose in the New York Post. "It is
full of misinformation and outright fabrications, as well as untruths..."
he alleges.

Rabbi Weiss is the father of Avrohom Meir Weiss, formerly of
Staten Island, who now lives in New Jersey, as does his estranged wife.

"This is a very, very heart wrenching and ongoing
dispute," a clearly upset Rabbi Weiss said in an exclusive interview with
the Advance. "We've been trying desperately to resolve this for a long
time.

This has destroyed my family health wise and destroyed my family
financially."

The rabbi's greatest concern is the potential impact of the
dispute on a grandson who is the center of a custody battle. Rabbi Weiss
insisted that despite Ms. Dodelson's claims, no attempt has been made by his
son to obtain sole custody.

"We have a grandchild here, the sweetest child you will
ever meet, who doesn't understand any of this, who one day is going to grow up
and have to read this," Rabbi Weiss said. "We don't want him to think
that we could ever say anything bad against his mother, no matter what she
did."

Although the controversy centers on the Orthodox Jewish
woman's alleged attempts to obtain a "get" from his son, some of the
posters claim they are boycotting Artscroll religious publishing house where
Rabbi Weiss has worked for many years.

The Weiss family is well-known in the Island Jewish
community; an uncle of the estranged husband is Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss of
Agudath Israel of Staten Island and a great-grandparent of the estranged
husband is the late renowned scholar Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

A Facebook page with the message, "Free Gital: Tell
Avrohom Meir Weiss to Give His Wife a 'Get'" has over 12,500 likes. The
Facebook page encourages people in cyberspace to contact not only Artscroll but
lists phone numbers for her estranged husband and for the estranged husband's
parents and grandparents.

Meanwhile, Twitter is buzzing with tweets from supporters
for Ms. Dodelson.

According to the Facebook page and website, Ms. Dodelson
first asked her husband for a 'get,' which is a Jewish bill of divorce, four
years ago and their civil divorce was finalized in August 2012. Ms. Dodelson
claims on her Facebook page that Weiss refuses to give her a 'get' unless she
agrees to a variety of conditions.

A get is given by a husband and received by his wife in order
to end a Jewish marriage. Without a get, neither party is permitted to remarry
according to Jewish law. An agunah is a woman whose marriage has functionally
ended, but whose husband refuses to give her a get, said the Organization for
the Resolution of Agunot.

"We suspect much
of Gital's disappointment stems from her reaction to the arbitrator's findings,
and she has lashed out in response," said Rabbi Weiss, explaining that
both families have been working with an arbitrator for several months.

"We do not wish to respond in kind, nor to jeopardize
delicate negotiations by discussing them publicly, but we remain hopeful that
the entire matter including the get will be resolved very soon, so that Avrohom
and Gital can get on with their lives."

"If this was my mother, sister, or daughter I would do
everything in my power to free her," said Scott Kalmikoff of Grant City in
an email to the Advance. "I think the Jewish community has a
responsibility to advocate for this woman, our Jewish sister, until she is
finally free."

Kalmikoff claims many people will "criticize me for
going to the SI Advance with this story. Many Orthodox Jews believe that we
should keep these sorts of issues 'in house.'"

Kalmikoff attends and is on the board of the Agunah Advocacy
Club at Yeshiva University and he frequently attends services at the Young
Israel of Staten Island.

"This is an issue that deeply troubles me,"
Kalmikoff said, but he added "that a very small percentage of Orthodox
Jewish men withhold gets. I don't want people to think that this is a common
occurrence.